{"id":37499,"date":"2026-06-18T10:25:32","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T10:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/37499\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T10:25:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T10:25:32","slug":"with-new-paris-office-uaes-edge-group-sees-europe-as-next-large-market-ceo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/37499\/","title":{"rendered":"With new Paris office, UAE’s EDGE Group sees Europe as ‘next large market’: CEO"},"content":{"rendered":"

PARIS \u2014 The CEO of Emirati defense giant EDGE Group said the company chose France<\/a> for its next international office because Europe stands to be its \u201cnext large market\u201d \u2014 even if the continent presents its own challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cEurope is unique. Europe does not import. Usually they want European solutions. For European solutions, you need to be in Europe,\u201d EDGE CEO Hamad Al Marar told Breaking Defense on the sidelines of the Eurosatory defense exhibition outside Paris. The company plans to inaugurate the new EDGE Europe office later today.<\/p>\n

Al Marar noted EDGE already has a presence in Europe through prior defense deals and subsidiaries like Estonia\u2019s Milrem Robotics<\/a>. The firm knows how to work with NATO customers. But, he said, \u201cwe just needed a full-fledged presence in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Europe, he said, \u201crequires new players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al Marar said the company chose Paris, in particular, for its new office mostly due to France\u2019s decades-long \u201cconsistent\u201d political relationship with the United Arab Emirates, as well as defense relationships based around major weapons platforms the UAE acquired from France, from fighter jets to main battle tanks. (France deployed fighter jets<\/a> to the UAE to aid in the defense of French military installations amid Iranian attacks in March.)<\/p>\n

EDGE is looking to do business throughout the continent, Al Marar said, though he acknowledged one market may be especially challenging to crack: Germany.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery market is an opportunity, I just think Germany is one of the difficult ones,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re tough, and that\u2019s in a good way. \u2026 They can build everything and they have capacities. On the contrary other European countries do not enjoy similar capacities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al Marar said EDGE \u201clearn[s]\u201d from German industry, and that the two have a \u201crespectful competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, the EDGE CEO said the company has seen \u201chuge interest\u201d from companies globally in the wake of Iran\u2019s attacks on the UAE. As he previously told Breaking Defense, EDGE systems aided<\/a> in the nation\u2019s defense of its homeland by spoofing and jamming incoming Iranian drones.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs they say, war is never good, but it showed a level of readiness that we had in the UAE armed forces and it showed how robust our industry is to really stand and support our troops,\u201d he said. \u201cIn such conflicts you get to be put to the test. \u2026 We did very well.\u201d<\/p>\n

He highlighted Africa, in particular, as the region outside the Middle East with the most immediate interest in EDGE products, suggesting African nations were not just interested in military equipment but systems useful for missions like homeland defense, border security and intelligence.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of our sales are going to Africa, followed by Latin America<\/a>, followed by Asia, and hopefully, Europe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS \u2014 The CEO of Emirati defense giant EDGE Group said the company chose France for its next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[493,15403,3669,16242,24469,73,24470,2817,50,72,30],"class_list":["post-37499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-paris","tag-africa","tag-air-force","tag-army","tag-business-industry","tag-edge-group","tag-europe","tag-eurosatory-2026","tag-global","tag-iran","tag-middle-east","tag-paris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}